German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble ruled out Germany contributing any more money to the beefed-up EU bail-out fund than the 211 billion euros approved by parliament, in an interview published Saturday.

“The European Financial Stability Facility has a ceiling of 440 billion euros ($590 billion), 211 billion of which is down to Germany. And that is it. Finished,”he told the magazine Super-Illu.

He also suggested the European Stability Mechanism, which is due to replace the EFSF by 2013 at the latest, would be smaller.

“Then it will be only a matter of 190 billion in total, for which we will be guarantors, including interest,” he explained.

Germany’s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, on Thursday approved the beefing up of the eurozone bailout fund, which cleared its final hurdle on Friday when it was rubber-stamped by the Bundesrat (upper house).

The vote had been seen as a crucial test of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s authority amid fears of a backbench rebellion. However she secured an overwhelming majority of her own deputies to back the move.

A majority of Germans (58%) consider it was a mistake to boost the EFSF, according to a poll to be published Sunday in the weekly Bild am Sonntag.

(As if ‘Bild am Sonntag’ readers would know anything about economics and politics.)

In an interview with the Super-Illu newspaper published on Saturday, Schaeuble said Germany would not contribute more than that amount to the 440 billion euro European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF).

“Germany will take on 211 billion euros in guarantees and that’s it, that’s really the end of it with the exception of the interest costs on top of it,” said Schaeuble, who has faced criticism recently for revising upwards earlier pledges on ceilings for the guarantees.

Germany’s lower and upper houses of parliament approved strengthening the EFSF on Thursday and Friday.

Schaeuble said Germany would contribute a bit less to the future permanent European Stability Mechanism (ESM), which is due to replace the EFSF in 2013. He said Germany’s contribution to the ESM including interest costs would be 190 billion euros.